Sunday, April 30, 2017

South Africa: Soweto

playing soccer
 While we were staying in Johannesburg we visited Soweto which stands for SOuth WEstern TOwnships.

government housing
   In Soweto we took a tuk tuk tour. A tuk tuk is a small three wheeled vehicle that is used as a taxi in some countries. We passed a school right at dismissal so we played soccer with the kids in the street. They won but it was still really fun. after the soccer game we visited the men's hostel. Hostels were neighborhoods where they separated men and women during the apartheid. The men's hostel is quite dirty. We visited the  butcher, he was getting a cow head ready for eating. The smell was really strong, and many roofs were made with asbestos which is dangerous for humans. Near the men's hostel were big, fancy buildings that the government had built so that the people in Soweto could live there, but they wanted the people to pay for it so nobody could afford it. There are still guards today.

   We stopped at a little shack to eat chicken necks and feet, they were really good. Then we visited the women's hostel which was much neater and cleaner. Last but not least we visited the Mandela house, (the place where Nelson Mandela grew up) and the Hector Pieterson memorial and museum, a memorial to the Anti-Afrikaans Soweto Uprising led by schoolchildren in 1976.
houses
                                        I think Soweto was a good experience and it was eye opening
                                        on how different other people's lives can be.

Monday, April 3, 2017

Cape Town

One of the last things we did in Africa was go to Cape Town. This is a post about what we did there.
Surfing

We went surfing at Muizenberg. Surfing was really fun especially when I stood up. We took a surfing lesson at Gary's surf school. At Boulders beach we saw penguins. They were really funny. One of them attacked my Dad's phone when we were taking pictures. When they were swimming they seemed to fly underwater. We also went to Cape Point and Cape of Good Hope which form the southern peninsula. It was pretty windy at Cape of Good Hope, at the top we built rock piles on really steep cliffs
Boulders beach

Cape of Good Hope


In Cape Town we visited a place called Cheetah Outreach where we could pet cheetahs and hold meerkats. WARNING: meerkats stink a lot. One of the cheetahs thought Hugo was his breakfast. Because of the line we skipped the cableway at Table Mountain, a big, flat mountain in the middle of the city.
Hout Bay
Cheetah Outreach

Cape town was amazing
and if I ever get a chance
I'll go back.